Horst is a male given name used mostly in German-speaking countries.

Etymology/meaning

The name is of Old High German origin, meaning "man from the forest", "bosk" or "brushwood". In modern German, "Horst" is also a translation of English aerie, the nest of an eagle or other bird.

Notable people named Horst

• Horst Buchholz (1933–2003), German actor
• Horst Bulau (born 1962), Canadian ski jumper
• Horst Eckel (1932–2021), German footballer
• Horst Feistel (1915–1990), German cryptographer
• Horst Fischer (1912–1966), German SS concentration camp doctor executed for war crimes
• Horst P. Horst (1906–1999), German photographer
• Horst Hrubesch (born 1951), German footballer
• Horst Jankowski (1936–1998), German pianist
• Horst Janson (actor) (born 1935), German actor
• Horst Köhler (born 1943), former Federal President of Germany
• Horst Lademacher (born 1931), German historian
• Horst Mahler (born 1936), German rightist and ex-Rote Armee Fraktion member
• Horst Mahseli (1934–1999), Polish footballer
• Horst Muhlmann (1940–1991), German-born American football player
• Horst Peissker (1927–?), German biochemist
• Horst Rechelbacher (1941–2014), Austrian-American businessman
• Horst Rosenthal (1915–1942), German-born French cartoonist of Jewish descent
• Horst Salomon (1929–1972), German novelist and screenwriter
• Horst Seehofer (born 1949), minister-president of Bavaria
• Horst Simco (born 1982), American rapper also known as Riff Raff (rapper)
• Horst Sindermann (1915–1990), German politician
• Horst Tappert (1923–2008), German actor
• Horst Wessel (1907–1930), German National Socialist political activist, assassinated in Weimar Germany